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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Great book on how to run a calm company.
It's not a heavy book, but has enough content to explore all the things Jason & David do @ basecamp. Must read if you are planning to start of a company!
It's not a heavy book, but has enough content to explore all the things Jason & David do @ basecamp. Must read if you are planning to start of a company!
Easy quick casual read. Opinionated. I agree with the theme but didn't agree with a lot of the specific practices. I like their vibe though. A little bit over-combative perhaps but it causes you to be like, wait if I want it to not have to be crazy at work maybe I have to take stock and take charge of my situation, since that's not always the default.
This book tell the interesting tale of company Basecamp, that limits its ambition to prioritize stability over growth. That then translates to giving people great compensation (top 10% pay of San Francisco compensation, regardless of where you live), great work hours (no working after hours, plus four-day-weeks during Summer, and focus on delivery instead of hours), and great benefits (vacation fund, education fund).
On one hand, it's great to see that a company is able to achieve such standards that the average employee could only dream of. On the other hand, companies that can do this are, in my opinion, privileged few - they must have consistent revenue from an evergreen successful product.
I recommend reading this book for a "what if" evaluation of work experience.
The book also has some insights into how to structure work so it's remote-first. There may be better resources out there if that's your focus. But, granted, this is the story of a company that has been doing remote-first successfully for decades.
On one hand, it's great to see that a company is able to achieve such standards that the average employee could only dream of. On the other hand, companies that can do this are, in my opinion, privileged few - they must have consistent revenue from an evergreen successful product.
I recommend reading this book for a "what if" evaluation of work experience.
The book also has some insights into how to structure work so it's remote-first. There may be better resources out there if that's your focus. But, granted, this is the story of a company that has been doing remote-first successfully for decades.
Quite obvious but too often forgotten - inspiring rules that Basecamp follows, which inspired me to lessen the noise and hassle in my environment as a whole. Give this book to your managers and colleagues, especially if they play tetris with your calendar, arrange meetings about meetings about meetings and you're always surrounded by FOMO in terms of messages and decisions (instead - choose JOMO).
inspiring
fast-paced
I've only read it once so far, but I found myself rereading chapters regularly because 1) the main point of the chapter wasn't neatly condensed into a one-liner (which is neither good nor bad) and 2) the chapters moved so quickly that I felt like I missed something. There's a lot of good ideas in here, but whether you can actually make them happen at your company is a whole other matter. I feel like the advice in this book has several audiences and your use of this book largely depends on whether you're an employee, a manager, or an entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur would get the most out of this book, though they have to be willing to hear its advice and try it—it certainly goes against typical practices.
An employee will long for some of the ideas, but will only have so much power to make them happen. Some of the employee-applicable content will feel like common sense, but some of it runs counter to prevailing ideas, in particular the idea of not being constantly available.
A manager is somewhere in between the entrepreneur and the employee depending on their ability to change current practices, but they can be the champions for sane deadlines, trimming down scope, and protecting their employees' time. They can also be a good example for their team(s).
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I feel like I need to read it again, or at least read over my highlights, in order to get everything out of it. The short chapters lead to the idea moving quickly through my head and I want to better hold some of those ideas because they're worth holding onto.
An entrepreneur would get the most out of this book, though they have to be willing to hear its advice and try it—it certainly goes against typical practices.
An employee will long for some of the ideas, but will only have so much power to make them happen. Some of the employee-applicable content will feel like common sense, but some of it runs counter to prevailing ideas, in particular the idea of not being constantly available.
A manager is somewhere in between the entrepreneur and the employee depending on their ability to change current practices, but they can be the champions for sane deadlines, trimming down scope, and protecting their employees' time. They can also be a good example for their team(s).
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I feel like I need to read it again, or at least read over my highlights, in order to get everything out of it. The short chapters lead to the idea moving quickly through my head and I want to better hold some of those ideas because they're worth holding onto.
This book is not for me. It’s for entrepreneurs and managers, CEOs and supervisors. To build the company and organization that is necessary to prevent burnout and high employee turnover.
Super surprised this was written in 2018: definitely thought earlier, but not sure why. tl;dr: would love to work at Basecamp!
Rating: 4.5 (Rounded down). Listened as an audiobook. Scatchy, advice list type of book with short chapters covering ideas for running the business based on authors' own experience. Authors state themselves that there are no best practices and business should adjust according to its needs. So I disagree with popular opinion here about selfcentricism in the book, some points might be doubtful at first but they are worth to consider.
Highly recommended to consultants, corporate world workers and enterpreneurs. I could give more rating if book had been more detailed in the explanation of some of the points.
Highly recommended to consultants, corporate world workers and enterpreneurs. I could give more rating if book had been more detailed in the explanation of some of the points.
I’m not one to write a review, nor do I read/listen to these books very often. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and gave me much food for thought on my work life. The narrator was really good and of course part of the headline is something I say frequently, it’s been crazy at work. I recently attended a webinar that Fried was speaking on and loved many of the things he talked about and thought I’d give his book a try. Talk about topics that made me wish my directors would read it! Although that may never happen and they will not likely have these same thoughts or ideas on the office, it definitely gave me some thoughts and ideas that I can slowly do for myself and maybe help improve my own team.